Gilda Langer

In the beginning of 1920 she became engaged with director Paul Czinner, who turned out to be gay, but at the end of January she sadly died of a lung infection. However, not everybody believed it went just like that. Janowitz said that her own sudden engagement had put her under severe mental stress, adding to her unexpected demise, and Herbert G. Luft claimed she overdosed on drugs. Certain is that Paul Czinner moved on to marry Elisabeth Bergner in later years. On 4 Feb 1920 Gilda Langer was buried at the then fashionable cemetery at Stahnsdorf, Berlin. In 1995 her gravestone was rediscovered in an unkempt part of the very large cemetery by movie historian Olaf Brill. The headstone had come down but was still there. Carl Mayer was the one who had erected it there after her death and apart from her name, notes from the theme of lovers from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" were engraved upon it. Thanks to Mr. Brill's careful notes the gravestone could be located again in 2004. After rubbing off a lot of mud it turned out to be still readable.